Teacher support for Common Core at 'critical juncture'

'We haven't yet. But we need to do a course correction or we'll lose them'

Published: 02/20/2014 at 6:19 PM

(Politico) The rollout of the Common Core academic standards is at a “critical juncture,” as teachers are increasingly skeptical of the initiative — and could turn against it in large numbers, scuttling its chances of success, the president of the nation’s largest teachers union said Thursday.

Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, told POLITICO that he intended to sound a very loud alarm bell when he wrote an open letter this week warning that implementation of the Common Core has been “completely botched.”

The union has been polling its members and conducting focus groups all winter. Early results indicate that enthusiasm for the academic standards has slipped since a poll of NEA members last year found that 26 percent endorsed the Common Core wholeheartedly, 50 percent backed it with reservations and 13 percent didn’t know enough to form an opinion.